The NCS-2 was a re-interview of 5,001 individuals who participated in the Baseline (NCS-1). The study was conducted a decade after the initial baseline survey. The aim was to collect information about changes in mental disorders, substance use disorders, and the predictors and consequences of these changes over the ten years between the two surveys. The collection contains three major sections: the main survey, demographic data, and diagnostic data.
In the main survey, respondents were asked abo... (more info)

The NCS-2 was a re-interview of 5,001 individuals who participated in the Baseline (NCS-1). The study was conducted a decade after the initial baseline survey. The aim was to collect information about changes in mental disorders, substance use disorders, and the predictors and consequences of these changes over the ten years between the two surveys. The collection contains three major sections: the main survey, demographic data, and diagnostic data.

In the main survey, respondents were asked about general physical and mental health. Questions focused on a variety of health issues, including limitations caused by respondents' health issues, substance use, childhood health, life-threatening illnesses, chronic conditions, medications taken in the past 12 months, level of functioning and symptoms experienced in the past 30 days, and any services used by the respondents since the (NCS-1). Additional questions focused on mental disorders including depression, bipolar disorder, specific and social phobias, generalized anxiety, intermittent explosive disorder, suicidality, post-traumatic stress disorder, neurasthenia, pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and separation anxiety. Respondents were also asked about their lives in general, with topics including employment, finances, marriage, children, their social lives, and stressful life events experienced in the past 12 months. Additionally, two personality assessments were included consisting of respondents' opinions on whether various true/false statements accurately described their personalities. Another focus of the main survey dealt with substance use and abuse, nonmedical use of prescription drugs, and polysubstance use. Interview questions in the NCS-2 Main Survey were customized to each respondent based on previous responses in the Baseline (NCS-1).

Universe:
The population for NCS-1 included persons aged 15 to 54 years in the noninstitutionalized civilian population in the 48 contiguous United States. NCS-2 is a reinterview of that population, ten years after the NCS-1 survey.

Data Types:
survey data

Data Collection Notes:

The current release does not contain all of the sections asked within the main survey questionnaire. The remaining sections will be added later in 2015 which include: Screening, Depression, Specific Phobia, Social Phobia, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Intermittent Explosive Disorder, Suicidality, Substance Use, Services, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Chronic Conditions, Neurasthenia, Tobacco, Employment, Marriage, and Social Networks. Prioritization of which sections to release will be given based on incoming requests by users for a specific section.

In order to produce a public use data file some modifications to the data file were necessary. These modifications include combining continuous variables into categories, top- and bottom-coding, and masking of valid data.

The variable RESPID, which is a unique respondent identification number, corresponds to the same identification number assigned in the NCS-1 Baseline file under the variable name CASEID. When merging the two datasets together please rename CASEID to RESPID in the Baseline file prior to the merge occurring.

Users should be aware that when merging the NCS-2 data to the NCS-1 baseline data, the Demographic and Diagnostic sections use some of the same variable names. These variables in one of the files (NCS-1 or NCS-2) will need to be renamed before merging in order for the merged file to retain these variables from each dataset.

For more information on the National Comorbidity Survey, please visit the NCS Web site.

Methodology

Time Method:
Longitudinal: Panel

Kind of Data:
quantitative

Mode of Data Collection:
computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI)

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Performed consistency checks.

Created variable labels and/or value labels.

Standardized missing values.

Created online analysis version with question text.

Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:2014-03-31

Version History:

2015-03-31 The sections "Finances" and "Childhood" from the main questionnaire were completed and added to the data file.

2015-01-13 The "Children" section from the main questionnaire has been completed and added to the data file.